With solid data on what is achievable in the buildings sector – and practical knowledge on how to achieve it, at what cost-benefit ratios – Renovate Europe calls on the European Commission to specifically prioritise deep energy renovations as part of the European Green Deal.
To that end, we offer a sampling of projects already undertaken to show that it is technically possible and financially feasible to dramatically reduce the energy demand of EU buildings – by up to 80% on average. Rapid action to do so by 2050 would reduce the EU’s total consumption of energy by >30%, the combined annual energy use of Germany and Italy. Aside from slashing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, this would deliver multiple health and well-being benefits to individuals alongside social and economic benefits to societies.
97% of EU building stock is known to be inefficient.
Building and renovating in an energy-and resource-efficient way
At present, the rate of new builds in the EU is relatively low compared with the number of existing buildings that are resource and energy inefficient. Renovation needs to be given much higher priority to capture the efficiency potential available across all building types: individual homes, large apartment complexes, schools, hospitals, public facilities and heritage buildings. Links below will take you to three projects that demonstrate massive energy efficiency gains and other benefits, each detailing the work undertaken.
Across building types, renovations prove energy- and resource-efficient • Ljubljana, Slovenia
With its turn to be the European Green Capital on the horizon, the City of Ljubljana needed to take action on upgrading old buildings. To leverage technical expertise and secure financing, the City created a public-private partnership (PPP) with Petrol, the largest Slovenian energy company, and Resalta, an energy services company (ESCO).
Project Le Nef set out to radically transform a building constructed in the 1980s to serve as a Postal Sorting Outlet into an energy-positive, multi-purpose facility comprising a medical centre, offices, apartments and individual houses.
Large-scale, deep retrofit pilot programme targets residential dwellings • Dublin, Ireland
In 2017, Ireland launched a pilot scheme to evaluate policy mechanisms designed to incentivise deep retrofits, either by homeowners or by market players.
Buildings can go beyond “helping” to mitigate climate change
The European Green Deal needs to recognise that buildings can do much more than just contribute less to climate change. When properly considered within local contexts, they can deliver clear and long-lasting gains. Two examples of community-wide benefits are given through links below.
Motivated by the need to address multiple issues that undermined students’ health and well-being, local government took a holistic approach to building upgrades that put high priority on their thermal, visual, indoor-air and acoustic comfort.
Designed with the specific objective of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the buildings sector in Romania, the Improving Energy Efficiency in Low Income Housing and Communities (IEELIHC) programme recognised substantial opportunities in reducing energy consumption in dwellings across the country that are occupied by this vulnerable segment of society.
Efficient buildings boost occupant health, reduce national health-care costs
Acknowledging that healthy citizens and a healthy environment are both critical to a healthy economy, the European Green Deal has the stated aim of a “zero pollution ambition for a toxic-free environment”. Renovating the existing building stock is vital to improving both indoor and outdoor air quality. Click below for two impressive examples.
Social housing renovation delivers big energy savings and better occupant health • Portsmouth, UK
For decades, residents of Wilmcote House, a social housing complex in the UK, experienced high heating bills (most being in severe energy poverty) and had to cope with mould, damp and condensation that adversely affected their health. A renovation project tackled all these problems.
Hospital renovation helps patients heal faster, boosts staff well-being • Karlovac Hospital, Croatia
Built in the 1960s, when energy performance standards were non-existent, the structure consists of a reinforced concrete frame with inefficient and poorly fitted infill panels. With no insulation and single-glaze windows, it leaked a great deal of the warmth supplied by the district heating network, which ran on heating oil.
Renovations at Karlovac Hospital in Croatia, which serves a population of 130,000 people, reduced the length of patient stays and improved conditions for staff. Photo: Rudan D.o.o
Increasing climate ambitions for 2030 and 2050: buildings have a central role
Thanks to a strong push by the International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation (IPEEC), energy efficiency is on the G20 agenda, with buildings recognised as a key sector. Insights from IPEEC offer food for thought for the European Green Deal.
In its role as advisor to G20 governments, IPEEC makes the case that energy efficiency is central to achieving the goals of the COP21 Paris Climate Agreement. In its 10-year report, Executive Director Benoît Lebot made a strong call for more strategic action to secure energy efficiency’s place as “the first fuel” and to appropriately “fuel” its role as such. Arguing that every unit of energy NOT produced and consumed has the highest value to climate change objectives and to a just, clean energy transition, IPEEC identifies three disconnects that governments need to address:
Low understanding: Many stakeholders, from individuals to CEOs of multinational companies to policy makers, do not recognise energy efficiency as the quickest, greenest and most cost-effective way to address the challenges of energy security and climate change while also ensuring economic growth. Nor do they grasp how lower energy demand at national level can enable meeting their commitments to international agreements.
Insufficient investment: Because key players do not yet consider energy efficiency as a “resource”, the level of investment is extremely low. Governments accept that economic development requires reliable supplies of energy and have invested heavily each time a new source has been discovered (such as coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear and renewables), supporting research and development (R&D) to create “market push” for new technologies and building human, institutional, technical, legal and financial capacities. Energy efficiency needs this level of engagement to advance to “market pull” that will attract private investors.
Lack of vision: Energy efficiency suffers from its perceived role being limited to “quick wins”. In reality, these can lead to sub-optimal action and marginal improvements. Scenario modelling shows the long-term value of energy efficiency when applied strategically at large scale, including the prospect of larger paybacks.
Cleverly, IPEEC, framed the call as ‘2-Es that need 6-Ds’, saying that the ‘desirable’ goal of a global transition that supports universal access to modern energy services while also achieving the emissions reduction will require disruptive action in four key areas: decoupling, decarbonisation, decentralisation and digitalisation. It is time policy makers to take the lead in demonstrating energy efficiency as a mechanism to:
Decouple economic growth from energy demand;
Decarbonise both supply and demand;
Optimise decentralisation, as lower demand requires less infrastructure; and
Integrate digitalisation through energy management systems to collect more data and optimise operations.
The IPEEC membership[1] identifies buildings and energy management systems as key areas (along with appliances, networked devices, energy production and transportation). Renovate Europe believes it bears pointing out that a large portion of activities across all of these areas takes place in buildings, ergo ensuring the EU buildings stock is as energy efficient as possible warrants high priority.
As we’ve shown, it also makes good sense from the perspective of shifting to a resource- and energy-efficient economy that meets climate goals and improves the lives of all EU citizens.
For the full set of articles co-produced by EnAct and Renovate Europe, follow the links below:
Part 1 of 5 / Building renovations and the EU Green Deal
Part 2 of 5 / Proof of how buildings renovation can help meet the EU Green Deal
Part 3 of 5 / Tapping into the Just Transition Mechanism
Part 4 of 5 / Leveraging carbon revenues for EU buildings renovation
Part 5 of 5 / Financing residential deep energy renovation
SOURCES
[1] IPEEC members include EU countries plus Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, the People’s Republic of China, India, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Mexico, the Russian Federation, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States.